Of Bees And Flowers
by MoonyAddict
Summary: Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny observe Tonks and wonder why she's been so glowing lately. It is up to Remus to explain. [RemusTonks]


"She's looking funny these days, isn't she?"

Ron cast a quick glance at the pink-haired girl lolling around the kitchen and eyed Harry, Hermione and Ginny, sitting at the table with him, meaningfully.

"Pretty much, indeed," agreed Hermione, who had to turn around to see Tonks chew at a huge cookie contentedly, leant back against the counter. "She's all grinning and dreamy-eyed…"

"She's been for a few days now, hasn't she?" Ginny meddled, taking a sip from her cup of tea.

Harry shot an inquiring look at Tonks and had to concede she actually look a bit different. After Dumbledore's funeral he'd seen her getting better and better, her hair longer and pink again, but hadn't noticed before now how _better_ she looked.

She wasn't sickly thin as she used to; her face was a full heart anew, her cheeks had regained that soft hue of flush, and above all there was a never-fading smile painted on her lips, larger and brighter than any Harry had ever seen.

He wasn't sure how to describe it, but by her expression he could say Lupin's company had been an impressively powerful medicine, for them both.

"I would be like that, too, were I in her shoes." Hermione commented absentmindedly. Ron chocked in his tea as she and Ginny let out a faint sigh, and Harry felt his own ears burn.

"What was that?" coughed Ron, wiping blindly the tea he'd spilled on his shirt.

Both the two girls put on an innocent face. Harry felt like pointing out the obvious, for sheer irritation.

"Guess he meant that long, lovelorn sigh you let out moments ago…"

Hermione rolled her eyes impatiently.

"That was… Definitely not lovelorn."

"But it _was_ a sigh!" Ron insisted, smacking his fist on the table. Ginny huffed and whispered in his ear with a vague chuckle:

"You're just jealous because Hermione finds Lupin attractive. And so do I."

Harry, who was sitting close enough to Ron to catch everything, was about to express his opinion about the matter, when the sound of crashing pottery filled the room.

"Woops, clumsy as ever, aren't I?" Not at all squabbled by the small accident, Tonks waved her wand and bent down – showing a little effort in the process – to collect the now repaired cup she had dropped.

At this point Mrs Weasley rushed in, so quickly and worried that Harry thought she might be thinking of an attack.

"Tonks, dear, are you alright?"

"I'm sound, Molly, thanks." She said brightly, carefully placing the cup into the sink. "Butter hands, you know."

"I was afraid you'd-"

"Is everything okay in here?"

Everyone gazed at Lupin, who had just burst into the room, wand raised and alert. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny exchanged dazed looks. Was there something they hadn't been informed of?

The only reason Harry could find for all this nervousness was the actual possibility of an attack.

"Is there anything we should worry about, Mum?" Asked Ron, but his mother and Lupin seemed to be too occupied with Tonks to pay any attention to him.

Mrs Weasley led her to the table and literally forced her down in a chair.

"Here, dear, have a seat."

Though reluctantly, Tonks seemed to succumb under Lupin's anxious look, and acquiesced stiffly.

Harry knew that usually everyone preferred to spare Tonks any kind of work in order to prevent disasters, but for his tastes it was a little exaggerated to confine her in a chair. According to her insufferable attitude, Tonks seemed to be of the same opinion.

"I appreciate your help, but… Remus, I'm _fine_, get that _damn_ hand away from my forehead!"

Harry's jaw dropped, and Ron's followed suit. So that was it, then? Tonks was ill and nobody had cared to tell them?

"What's wrong with her?" inquired Harry, scrutinising Tonks in the same way Mrs Weasley and Lupin had done mere seconds ago. Tonks, however, fingered him with a scary light of fury in her eyes.

"Don't you start, too, Harry, don't you dare!" she warned him fiercely, albeit Harry didn't exactly know what he was being warned for. "I've had enough of this bloody hell y'all are making me go through! And _you_," she pushed Lupin away and stood on her feet, much to Mrs Weasley's disconcert. "How about letting me breathe, sometimes, uh?"

Harry, who had never seen Tonks seriously angry before, witnessed stunned to the whole tirade, wondering if the others were as shocked as he was.

"Blimey, what did they do to her?" Ron murmured, apparently unable to take his eyes off a very threatening-looking Tonks.

Hermione and Ginny, on the other hand – however surprised – seemed to be quite unfussed.

"Honey, you should really-"

"Spare me the honey-sweetheart-baby-whatever series, Remus, I'm not in the mood to stand it, at the moment!" snapped Tonks, breaking free from Lupin's lame grip, and went back sitting with a huge pout. Harry honestly couldn't see the point.

He had no idea of why they were arguing – and if it could actually be defined arguing – but whatever it was about, he thought it must be something massive, because he had never imagined it was possible to make a sweet girl like Tonks so furious. Besides he really couldn't even think of Lupin doing something that could get someone on their nerves, least of all his beloved Nymphadora.

Mrs Weasley must have noticed their curious looks, because she suggested him, Ron and the girls leave the room to go and get some fresh air outside.

"We've got a right to know if Tonks's sick!" protested Ginny, arms stubbornly folded across her chest.

Lupin glanced down at Tonks for a moment, then stepped forward with an unreadable expression on his face. Could he be… Embarassed?

"No need to worry, she's not sick." He said gently, as a very faint shade of red tinted his cheeks. Tonks snorted from her chair.

"Not sick my ass!" she spat out with a brief ironic laugh. "Come and look at me in the morning and you'll see how not sick I am."

"That's not a kind of sickness someone should worry about, dear." Said Mrs Weasley with a sweet tone to her voice. For some reason, Lupin's cheeks blushed a bit more.

Hermione stood up, scowling.

"I _would_ worry about any kind of-" She stopped dead in her tracks while a light of awareness lit up in her eyes when Tonks lifted a brow in what Harry supposed was to be considered an obvious look. "Oh!"

She looked back and forth from Tonks to Lupin, apparently at a loss for words. Harry couldn't quite follow.

"Seriously?" exclaimed Hermione excitedly, a delighted grin tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Very seriously." Tonks confirmed, looking more glowing than ever. Harry was glad Ron and Ginny looked as puzzled as him. Lupin stared at the ground, but a barely repressed smile was clearly visible on his mouth.

"I thought… I didn't… I would have never…" Hermione was bubbling, which was very peculiar for her. she stuttered her mouth a few times before being able to utter something sensed. "_How_?"

Mrs Weasley became as red as her hair, ducking her head into the cupboard, doing her best to look invisible, and Tonks chuckled.

"Well, y' know… The same old story." She sent a quick smile at Lupin, who was smiling back faintly. "He, she, deep night, some firewhisky…"

"I wasn't drunk!" Lupin cut in at once.

"Of course you weren't." she indulged him patiently, caressing the back of his hand soothingly.

"Care to elaborate, anyone?"

Everybody turned to Ron, who had just interrupted the conversation, and he cringed slightly, although not dropping a resolute expression.

Tonks stood up with a cheeky smirk and laid a hand on Lupin's shoulder.

"Go ahead, Remus. Tell them."

Harry was completely bewildered, as nothing his brain was registering could seem to find a logical place. Had everyone gone crazy, all of a sudden?

Lupin gazed at Mrs Weasley for support, but she just arched her eyebrows, as if inviting him to do it on its own.

"Well…" Lupin began, licking his lips nervously. "As you obviously know, Nymphadora and-"

"Tonks."

"Yeah… _Tonks_ and I have… Are… Have been into a relationship for a while now… And we… She… We are…"

Harry had never seen Lupin so awkward so far. He was probably the last men he would have expected to act so uneasily.

"What he's trying to say," Tonks intervened, wrapping her arms around his. "Is that we've got a baby Lupin on the way, here."

Three jaws fell as Harry, Ron and Ginny saw her trail her free hand over her stomach, smoothing the fabric of her shirt down, so that a small but definite bump became visible to their eyes.

Ginny let out a squeak of excitement.

"This is… It's so… Wow!"

And suddenly both Hermione and Ginny were hugging Tonks affectionately, cooing congratulations, watched from above by a very proud-looking Lupin.

Harry exchanged a stunned look with Ron and stared speechless at the scene taking place in front of their eyes.

"We didn't see it coming, did we?" Ron said, still a bit perplexed.

"At all." Harry agreed.

Ron assumed a thoughtful expression, without taking his eyes of the three girls.

"How clumsier d'you think she'll be with a watermelon-sized belly?" he asked after a short pause.

Harry eyed him meaningfully and Ron nodded gravely.

It was going to be a long nine months.


End file.
